After another impressive performance by the women’s fencing team, the undefeated Bulldogs definitely deserve a break.

The Elis followed up their season-opening 17-10 victory over NYU with another 17-10 win against Cornell (0-1) this past weekend in Ithaca, N.Y. The match against Cornell was Yale’s last before a one-month hiatus that stretches until mid-January.

“It’s great to finish out first semester undefeated,” captain Erica Korb ’06 said. “Even though we were expected to win against both of the schools we fenced already, it still gives us confidence and affirms that our training is getting us to the level we need to be at.”

The Bulldogs used a dominating performance by the foiler squad to clinch the win over the Big Red. The Yale foilers won all nine of their matches, a task difficult to accomplish regardless of the level of competition. The sabre team followed up with a 5-4 victory. Carly Guss ’06 led the sabre squad by winning both of her matches. Cornell avoided the sweep with a 6-3 victory in the epee competition.

While happy with the overall team performance, Korb did not feel the epee team had one of its better outings.

“Cornell’s strongest weapon is by far epee and while this partly explains the Yale epee squad’s 3-6 record. [But] I actually don’t think anyone on the epee squad was fencing as well as they could have been and almost all of us lost bouts we might have won if we’d been a bit sharper,” Korb said.

Despite this, the team victory was never really in question. The match was not as close as the score may suggest. After clinching the victory with 14 victories — a majority of the 27 individual bouts — Yale subbed out many of its top starters. But, as Korb explained, there still is room for improvement.

“Though we won both of our meets in the last week, everyone made the usual occasional mistake,” Korb said. “So we know what we need to work on individually before competitions start up next semester.”

The undefeated Bulldogs now head into their long winter break with valuable confidence.

“Once we come back we will have a lot more matches, so this break is helpful,” Erin Frey ’08 said. “Our confidence should carry us over and keep us positive and focused until then.”

The Elis will return to campus a few weeks before the start of next semester for winter training. Yale resumes play Jan. 19 against Brandeis and Wellesley.